The process of harvesting hay and straw begins by cutting the crop and laying it in a windrow. Various baling machinery is then used to gather and bundle the hay or straw for transport and storage. The round baler pulled behind a farm tractor has become the predominant agricultural method of baling hay and straw due to the ease in mechanized handling of round bales. It has replaced the older square baler which produced small bales which were most often handled manually.
Round balers are equipped with a pickup comprising rotating teeth which pick the windrow up and deliver it through a feed gap to the bale forming chamber. Most round balers are designed so that the feed gap through which the baling material enters the bale forming chamber is defined on the bottom by the top of a lower roller, which is rotating towards the rear of the baler and into the bale forming chamber, and on the top by the bottom of an upper roller rotating away from said chamber towards the front of the baler. This design is necessitated by the need to have the baling material traveling in the proper direction around the circumference of the bale forming chamber to form a bale.
Within the bale forming chamber there are bale forming means. Some round balers use belts traveling around the chamber as the bale forming means. Others use chains or rollers. In most cases, however, there is an upper and a lower roller defining the feed gap into the bale forming chamber.
As the baling material travels through the feed gap the bottom roller moves it into the bale forming chamber. In larger windrows the top of the windrow often contacts the upper roller which, because of its counter-rotation, tends to push the baling material away from the chamber and so retards the even flow of material. The result is often a plugged feed gap as the material is pulled in opposite directions.
To unplug the feed gap, operators commonly use a stick or prod to reach over the pickup and push the material through the feed gap and into the bale forming chamber. This is most often done while the baler is under power with the power take off shaft, pickup, rollers and bale forming means moving because then only a slight push is needed to overcome the counter-rotating force of the upper roller, and the material is carried into the bale forming chamber by the motion of the bottom roller. This puts the operator in the dangerous position of being in close proximity to the fast moving parts of the baler, and in contact with some of these fast moving parts through the stick or prod. Accidents are not uncommon, often resulting in loss of limbs and other very serious injuries.
In the busy baling season, frequent plugging of the feed gap can be very tiring and frustrating as the operator must stop the forward motion of the tractor, climb down from it, locate his stick or prod and push the material through the feed gap. This repeated process can easily lead to carelessness and hurry on the operator's part, and increase the chances of an accident. The frequency of such plugging of the feed gap varies greatly with conditions, but in some conditions the frequency can make it almost impossible to continue with the baling operation.
This problem has existed in balers manufactured by many different companies since such round balers were first introduced. The problem is more or less pronounced depending upon the size of the feed gap on the various balers, however in all round balers where the feed gap is defined by such counter-rotating rollers, the problem exists to some extent. No prior art has addressed this problem. The solution provided by the present invention is simple, and while it does not entirely eliminate plugging of the feed gap, such plugging is greatly reduced.